Monster House Review

Everyone had that house in their neighborhood growing up. You know, the one where the older kids in the neighborhood had told you about the guy who had killed his wife and now used her skin for his bed sheets. It was usually just a case of the house looking a bit run down and the imaginations of kids going wild with what they thought they saw while peeking through the windows.

However the house in "Monster House" is quite different, because it happens to be alive.



PLOT
Monster House revolves around a young boy, named DJ, who happens to live across the street from "that house" in his neighborhood. In this case, "that house," is inhabited by a grumpy old man by the name of Nebbercracker, who spends most of his life terrorizing anyone who steps foot on his lawn.

After an altercation between DJ and Nebbercracker, resulting in Nebb's apparent death, DJ receives a strange phone call filled with odd noises and scratching. When he traces the call, to give the prank caller a bit of his own medicine, he hears the phone ringing in Nebbercracker's house across the street. Knowing that the old man lived alone, DJ freaks and calls on his friend, Chowder, to help him sort the mess out.

Along the way, the duo also befriend a young girl by the name of, Jenny, who herself is almost devoured by devilish domicile.

Overall it's a somewhat original and well-executed plot that rarely, if ever, bogs down or feels forced. At times you wonder why nobody else on this crowded block ever sees a two story house grow teeth and deform into the massive, hideous beast that it actually is, but we can forgive such things. Heck... we are talking about a Monster House afterall, so you probably shouldn't go in expecting realistic depictions of anything.

Plot Grade: B+




Characters/Cast

The characters are quite a mixed bag. The kids themselves are great and very likeable in nature. Even Jenny, who can be somewhat pretentious at times, has enough redeeming qualities that you don't mind her being a little snotty. DJ is a strong main character, and Chowder provides the comic relief.

The supporting cast is another matter entirely. While the cops, played by Kevin James and Nick Cannon, are great, the supporting cast for the most part just doesn't stack up against the three main characters. Maybe this is how it was meant to be, but Zee, DJ's babysitter, is a very generic teenager and doesn't seem to be pushed as far as she could. Her apatheticness translates into a boring character for the most part, and her boyfriend, Bones, was a character who was obviously given no redeeming qualities at all, just so you wouldn't mind when (and you know it's coming in the first 5 seconds of meeting the character) the house eats him.

The supporting characters that do seem to be worth watching, such as DJ's parents, the cops, and Skull don't wind up having enough screen time to really make the impact that their characters probably could have. I would have much preferred to see Skull actually go fight the house with the kids, as I think it could have made for some great gags, but that's just my personal preference.

Characters/Cast Grade: B-



Art/Animation

Overall, I thought the art was amazing, but there were a few things that held it back.

The first is that, again while the models of the kids are great, the supporting cast just doesn't match up. Zee is really quite ugly and winds up looking like a deformed version of Winona Ryder. DJ's dad also seems to suffer from the same plastic face syndrome, and I'm not sure if it's the animators not pushing it far enough or simply the limitations of the models, but he always seemed to have the same emotion displayed on his face.

The second issue for me was the animation in spots. While I liked it overall, I felt that there were a few times when it seemed a bit too stiff. The characters often seemed to move like they had broom handles fused to their spines, especially in the case of (and I'm really not trying to pick on her here), Zee. I also felt that the final scene with the house chasing them down the street felt like it was done with stop motion. This was mainly due to the house's "arms," which were actually large trees. The animation on these was done in a style that made it look as though it was actually missing frames of animation at times.

Overall, these are quite minor, and I really did like the art style of the film in general. The colors were wonderful, and the homes and trees looked marvelous. Jenny had some really nice facial expressions ("Are you guys mentally challenged?"), as did Chowder and DJ.

I also thought the film used some great dust/smoke particle FX from the chimney, and also in the final scene of the film as the house chases the children.

The film is certainly not difficult to watch, and in fact does a wonderful job of recreating suburban life. It just so happens that, again, there are a few minor things that hold it back from being absolutely amazing.

Art/Animation Grade: B+



Audio/Music

You're not going to find any singing in this movie, folks, but what you are going to find is a score filled with a nice mix of creepy music that adds quite well to both the tense and tender moments of the film.

Not only that, but you get to hear Skull N' Bones live!

Audio/Music Grade: A



Overall

Monster House is a very good film. Think of it as the house halfway up the hill. While the Pixar mansions sit at the top, complete with indoor pools and bowling alleys, Monster House has a horseshoe pit and above ground backyard pool. It's certainly nothing you'd be ashamed at having your friends come over to, as it's far from the slums of "Hoodwinkedville," and it might even sneak on to an episode of cribs on a slow week, but the faucets aren't made of gold and the bottle of Crystal in the fridge is just for show.

So move your family in and stay a while, because while there may be a few touchups that need to be done here and there, by the most part there wouldn't be much for Bob Villa to have to fix up here.

Overall Grade: B



Monster House Website

All images in this post were taken from the HD trailer found on Apple's Trailer Site.